New Space Gets a Buzz

http://www.yelp.ca/biz/velveteen-vintage-vancouver

 

The Story and the Impact

Velveteen Vintage

Velveteen Vintage is a training project for youth to learn to work in retail. The vintage store is the vehicle to teach the skills. Sandra Todd’s passion is to see youth have a fair chance to gain skills to enter the workforce. Providing a safe, enjoyable environment to teach time management, customer service and marketing by using social media is a viable venture. The experience the youth receive is a feeling of accomplishment and pride. Our customer experience is one of enjoyment from dealing with youth in a business setting. Our stock is given to us by other vintage stores and by our community. The people who donate the goods to the youth feel they are involved with their community.

The retail outlet is environmentally friendly. Our stock is made up from recycled items. We plan on using green products in the store’s maintenance and recycled material to furnish it. We have made contacts with other vintage businesses to ask for their mentorship. Part of our expertise will come from this source. Our contact with mentors who possess different areas of skills will keep us on track.  The goal is to give the youth enough confidence and skills to be able to start their own small businesses in the future. The possibilities are endless with a project combining the power of youth with their trend spotting abilities. The youth talk about finding a job quite often. This will be a good job.

 

Velveteen Vintage Has Moved!

We are now located at 2280 E Hastings Street – right on the corner of Nanaimo Street in beautiful East Vancouver.

Come by and check out our new store — right now we have hundreds of vintage and gently used clothing items, all under $20. Our latest shipment is 200+ pieces donated to us by a closing yoga shop which is sure to go quickly!

$10 Bag Sales Every Saturday at Velveteen Vintage

Retro Saturdays
$10 Bag Sale

Sat Jan 28, Sat Feb 4, Sat Feb 11

Mens & Womens Retro Clothing & Shoes
Open 11-5 Tuesdays-Saturdays

Find us at East 10th Ave and Kingsway
across from Kingsgate Mall

Everything under $20
Support youth run business

$10 BAG SALE!

Velveteen Vintage on TV!

It seemed that getting up early on a Sunday morning really paid off, as we were visited by Shaw Television, who profiled us on their news show.

Our little store was buzzing at 9:30AM in the morning with a dozen people as our segment was being shot. Look for us on channel 4 in Vancouver — we’ll be posting the clip as soon as it’s online!

VV Mentor Profile: Sarah

Ten days done, twenty to go! June is flying by at our pop-up shop. We sat down with Sarah, a mentor at Velveteen Vintage, and asked her some questions about the store.

VV: How did you get involved with Velveteen Vintage?

Sarah: My aunt, Sandra Todd, who is the one who created the concept of this store and has put an incredible amount of time into making it happen, let me know about it. I was really excited and interested, and started helping her a few months ago – mostly sorting through the hundreds of donated. clothing items that we were planning to sell. Now I work at the store, and am having a lot of fun taking part!

VV: Do you a background in retail, or fashion?

Sarah: I’ve had a fashion blog for the last few years, and frequently write about how to look good and not spend hundreds of dollars. This store really appeals to me because not only is everything twenty dollars and under, it’s all in excellent condition and comes from great clothing lines. Besides that, I’ve worked in consignment stores, which really taught me the value of things, and gave me a good knowledge of brands.

VV: What’s one big thing you’ve done for the store?

Sarah: I created the ‘Cat Wall’! It’s basically one big wall in the store that has about a dozen paintings of cats — everyone who works there has contributed to it. People really seem to love it, every time someone comes into the store, it puts a smile on their face.

VV: What has been your best find at Velveteen Vintage?

Sarah: (laughs) Ah, working there every day makes me want to take half the store home! The best thing I’ve found is this amazing vintage silk strapless dress — I tried it on and it fit like it was made just for me. I love it because I can wear it casually, over a white shirt, or under a cardigan — or dressed up. As soon as I add heels and a clutch it becomes instantly fancy!

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You can read Sarah’s blog at www.111wpm.com

June 9th 2011

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Hey everyone!

Thank you all for your continued support! Velveteen Vintage continues to be a hit in the Mt. Pleasant area. Remember to tell your friends and spread the word! We’re only here until the end of June, so don’t miss your opportunity.

And, don’t forget to check out our ever-increasing collection of art for sale, produced entirely by the talented young people running the store.

Our First Weekend Recap

After opening officially on Friday, we had overwhelmingly positive first week at Velveteen Vintage. After putting up flyers up and down Main Steet, covering the sidewalks with chalk arrows beckoning the community to venture into our new retail space – and promoting our boutique online, we had over a hundred people come in – many who made a return visit over the weekend to check out our always rotating stock.

If you haven’t visited our store, come in and take a look! As you may not know, everything(!) is under $20, which makes for a very affordable spot for preloved and vintage clothing.

Some new photos of our freshly organized store:

(Our littlest customer!)

STORE OPENS OFFICIALLY ON FRIDAY!

May 31st: Day 1

The first official day at Velveteen Vintage started with a BANG…of giant bags of clothing on concrete. We started this morning with an empty space and left with a store that’s really taking shape. We brought it over five hundred items today — and even made our first sale! (Despite the fact we don’t open until tomorrow!).

Over the next few days we hope to turn this space into something awesome, and by Friday we’ll be in full swing for our Grand Opening Party!

Until then, please come down and check us out at Kingsway and 10th. We’re open 11am – 5pm all days except Saturday, where we stay open until 7pm. We have an unbelievable amount of vintage and designer clothing — men’s, women’s, shoes, belts, purses, accessories and jewelry — all under $20.